First Kill

We had our first death of the new campaign. Dern the Dwarf is Deceased. Slain by a rather large worm with paralytic saliva. There were almost two other deaths from a pack of rat-sized beetles, but the party made it out alive with a chest full of a substantial number of coins. They managed to haul that chest up the 180-foot shaft of the Great Spiral Stair using nothing but a bunch of 50-foot ropes without incident; if that chest had dropped, man, it would have made a great noise.